Hi there! I new to the forum and growing. I live in Houston where it tends to be hot and humid June through October. I was trying to start growing outdoors. I am looking for an autoflower strain that can survive the heat and fight the humidity. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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Northern Lights and White Widow autos grow fine outdoors. Blueberry might, but I can’t even get them to grow right indoors @Izzy. I’m 140 miles west of you. It gets hot here too. It’s not the heat so much as the rain that will be a problem. Especially when they’re in flower.
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Thanks @OldSkunk. I was really worried I didn’t want mother nature to kill my babies. My first grows were indoors were I could control heat and humidity.
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Oh and welcome to the forum. It’s much more friendly than others out there.
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I live in middle Georgia; rain, humidity and high heat are an issue for me but I was able to get a really good harvest off my middle of summer outdoor grow of White Widow Autos. Beware the bud rot, it was a major problem for everyone this year.
I would highly recommend fabric grow bags over plastic planters and nothing smaller than 5 gal. Iđź’“GM has a buy 10 get 10 deal on WWA currently. You will need a digital PH and TDS (total dissolved solids) meter, along with a loupe for checking trichome color at harvest.
Flowering starts 30 days after sprout, you can FIM but topping is not recommended. FIM is done when you have 4 or 5 leaf nodes. I would highly recommend Light Stress Training (LST).
Best advise I can give you, have plenty of patience.
Welcome and happy growing!!
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If this weather, then I would advise to put a greenhouse, as it will not be easy to grow in the open air, and you will always need to monitor the plant. Think about it.
knowing Houston consistently receives flooding rains…choose a high dry spot
I’m about 4 hours northwest of you and have similar conditions at times; although your high humidity will be more of an issue (slightly) than here. Humidity can be good, though. Do some research on Vapor Pressure Defficit (VPD) and check out a VPD chart. There’s one at Just4Growers dot com and one on the Pulse website. At 103°F the perfect relative humidity level is 75%-77.5%. What you need to worry about is mold like powdery mildew and botrytis. When you’re looking at strains, look for one that says it’s “mold resistant.” Also, you’ll want something that isn’t super leafy. If the plant has tons on fan leaves with very tight intermodal spacing you’ll be constantly defoliating and worrying about a mold taking hold in all that dense vegetative growth. Look for something that’s billed as “a trimmers dream” or “very little trimming needed.” Most likely it’ll be a sativa or a hybrid that’s heavier on the sativa side or exhibits the sativa growth and structure characteristics. Sativas are from hot weather areas and Indicas are from colder climates; so sativas tend to have more heat resistance. One key term I look for is that a strain is recommended for “Mediterranean” sun or conditions.
Whatever you pick, I’ve found that some shade from the hot west sun of late afternoons is necessary. The long summer days and low latitude sun will provide plenty of light in Houston. So, you can afford to give them a little shade in those hottest hours from 4pm to 7pm. If you can, rig up some shade cloth to cut down the sun intensity during those hours - proper and careful placement of the shade cloth will give you a little relief from the heat but still let some of the light through.
I had great luck with Paul’s Super Dense Auto and Paul’s Chrystal Aurora Auto from New420GuySeeds. They are VERY affordable also. I would start them indoors under a 6500k fluorescent bulb for the first 2-3 weeks after they emerge from the soil and then begin putting them outside for a few hours a day; increasing the outdoor fime a little each day until the become used to (or “hardened”) the outside conditions. Starting an auto outside as a seed in the dumber heat works but the plants tend to stunt many times.
Hope this helps!
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